Updates from September 8, 2006

Do you ever have so much fun trying to fool a fish that you're almost disappointed when you actually do? I got that feeling after who knows how many casts over this hungry little brown with a Trico imitation.

This pretty little mountain valley pond held several browns and brookies, not huge but outsized for their small stream, and the water was so clear I could sight-fish for them across half the pond. There was also a school of bullheads swimming laps.

Of all the pools I've fished, this one was most deserving of the colorful little brook trout it held.

Twinkling Tricos in the air.

This little pool shelters some eager small-stream brook trout. You can see this pool from underwater, too.

This old artificial dam (possibly the former site of a bridge) creates a nice little trout pond upstream.

Oops.

I let my little light cahill spinner dangle in the air a bit too long while looking for rises. There were at least 30 bats flying around the pool, and this one hooked itself on my fly. I just let it fly around my rod tip and, while trying to figure out what to do, I took some pictures. (When in doubt...) Eventually it managed to unhook itself and fly away.

I caught several wild and colorful 8-9 inch brook trout in the clear little pool below this waterfall.

For how many years, I wonder, have these huge slabs of rock sheltered wild brook trout?

No method of casting in my arsenal was capable of presenting a fly to the brook trout in this hidden pool.

Here's another view of the pool under the waterfall shown in this picture. This time one of the pool's many brook trout is visible, but well-camouflaged. Can you find it?

The rock wall across the picture is at least 15 feet away -- this is extremely clear water in a tiny Catskill stream. This plunge pool to a large waterfall holds many brook trout in the 8-9 inch range but they hide too well to spot in this photo.

This little pool shelters some eager small-stream brook trout, though I caught or frightened them before I took the picture. You can see this pool from above the water, too.

I tried to photograph this salamander but it kept scurrying away from the camera. The rocks in this little backwater are covered with a thin layer of very easily disturbed silt, so anywhere I followed it I didn't have much time to photograph before the water was too turbid for a good shot. This is the best I got.

In this picture: Amphibian Order Caudata (Salamanders).